How the Chronicle covers Enron's trial

Commentary: Also, help! NBC's Turin work

JonFriedman

The largest newspaper in the nation's fourth biggest city has the challenge of striking a balance between comprehensiveness and overkill, as it covers the biggest show in town -- the Enron trial.

The most widely followed local story in recent Houston history is also looming as the Mount St. Helens of courtroom dramas. Oh, sure, the trial of former Enron top executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, who presided over the implosion of one of America's hottest and biggest companies, is quiet at the moment. But it's bound to erupt as soon as the key cross-examinations take place.

There are two inherent challenges: a) It's expected to last a minimum of four months, longer if the defense counsel has its way, and b) This is basically an ACCOUNTING trial, so the guts of it are likely to be highly technical, dull and difficult to understand for the, well, lay reader.

The Chronicle's strategy hinges on using its Web site (www.chron.com) to blast out story after story as a way of satisfying its insatiable Enron fanatics. "We're looking to provide a layer of coverage that serves the needs of our diehard readers in the paper and on the Web," said Chronicle interim business editor Laura Goldberg. "But we're not going to strain to create something."

Thank heavens for the Internet, Chronicle editors say. On Tuesday, the front page of the Chronicle's Web site exhibited the strength of the Web. The lead story said: "Credibility of witness in question by Enron defense," and it also included a TrialWatch blog, a Full Disclosure blog and photos describing the day in court.

The Full Disclosure blog, in particular, written by Chronicle business columnist Loren Steffy, goes a long way toward giving readers a front-row seat on what's at stake.

"Clearly, this is the future, covering events like this in a real time manner," added George Haj, deputy managing editor of the Chronicle.

"The Chronicle is doing an excellent job, especially with its Web site," Ali Velshi, CNN business anchor who has been reporting on the trial, told me. "It's a great reference point."

The Chronicle has relied heavily on the Web. It's able to provide immediate and almost suffocating coverage online by employing everything from blogs to columns and running accounts. The goal is to feed the insatiable appetite of the Chronicle's Enron news fanatics (who mostly want the heads of Lay and Skilling on a stick as revenge).

Lay and Skilling have been accused of lying about Enron's financial well being, hiding debt and exaggerating profits while bringing the energy behemoth to its knees a little more than four years ago.

In addition, "Enron," even more than, say, WorldCom or Adelphia, has entered the American culture as a symbol of corporate malfeasance at its most glaring. The scandal rocked the energy and stock markets and caused freaked-out individual investors to question whether their money was still safe.

The Enron collapse has shaken Houston to its core because so many employees and investors found their worlds turned upside down. It has overshadowed other local events, and Houston has seen its share of drama in recent years.

Remember, this is where Andrea Yates drowned her five children and caused people to think more seriously about postpartum depression. Plus, Houston opened its heart with a massive relief effort in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina last fall. Weeks later Hurricane Rita sent hundreds of thousands of area residents inland seeking shelter from the storm.

On the lighter side, the sports media flocked to the city in October when the Houston Astros reached the World Series for the first time in the franchise's history.

The media are struggling to enliven a story that will be hard for a lot of people to follow, unless they're accounting devotees.

"We have to approach this in a very interesting way," CNN's Velshi said. "Oer constant challenge is to take the information and make it interesting and relevant. We can't afford to have people tuning it out."

For the next few months, the Chronicle and the national media will hang in there, waiting for the Perry Mason Moment, the instance that will send reporters racing to phone in headlines to their editors.

Chronicle columnist Steffy disagrees with him. "'Not Guilty!' would be unexpected -- and explosive," Steffy said. "Seeing Skilling acquitted would be the biggest headline, and the most surprising one to Houston. Lay is an enigma. A lot of people like him personally. Skilling doesn't have that kind of support and they want to see him go down."

I'm sick of NBC's Olympics coverage (yes, already!)

I don't know if this is good or bad or inconsequential -- but I don't know anyone who is talking about the Winter Olympics, which begin this weekend.

If my suspicion that the nation is suffering some sort of a Super Bowl-hype hangover, NBC
GE, -1.70%
has a ready cure for it.

NBC is betting that it can create an even bigger buzz than usual for the Winter Olympics by blanketing the airwaves.

For instance, the "Today" show, one of NBC's jewels over the years, has practically become a commercial for the Olympics. As I type this, it's only Tuesday and yet I'm sick of NBC's coverage -- yes, already.

I dread the commercials, features, updates and bulletins about Turin -- which NBC pompously insists on calling "Torino."

Who in America has ever heard of the shroud of Torino, anyway?

MEDIA WEB QUESTION OF THE DAY: Are you a) looking forward to watching the Turin Olympics on NBC? or b) are you already sick of the whole thing? Or c) you didn't care one way or another all along?

WEDNESDAY PET PEEVE: I love the Rolling Stones' music more than oxygen or life itself, but I can't understand why the NFL executives didn't tap a Motown group to handle the much-coveted halftime entertainment slot at the Super Bowl. The game was held in Detroit as a way for the league to show its appreciation to the auto industry, which had just laid off thousands of workers before the big football game last Sunday. It would have been more appropriate if the NFL had gone all the way and asked the Four Tops or any number of wonderful Motown acts to sing at the game, instead of the Stones.

A READER RESPONDS: "Knowing how difficult it is to get a message across in our culture, I CEASE TO BE AMAZED with the media coverage these terrorists get and don't know how to solve the problem in this 24/7 news world? The U.S. media is our biggest enemy in the war against terror and I don't think they fully realize it." --- Chris Connolly

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